Jonathan Siegrist, writing about the end of his time in Las Vegas for the season as well as a brief visit he made to the much-hyped limestone in Ely, NV:

To be downright honest I was underwhelmed – but I also went there with pretty big expectations. There is some potential there, and the Mondo Cave is absolutely enormous, but for now I feel like my time and energy can be better spent elsewhere. The cave has great rock, but it also has a lot of poor rock – logistically it’s a little strange.

The expectations game in climbing can be a bit of a mind-f*ck for all of us, not just professionals.  So much of our experience upon first visiting an area is colored by the expectations set prior to that visit by stories and beta gleaned from others as well as a natural excitement I think we all have when seeing a new place.  Often times this leads to an underwhelming feeling like the one described by Siegrist, but as with many things in life first impressions are just that.

It’ll be interesting to see what comes of the climbing in Ely over the next decade or two.

Amazing story of recovery by Rannevig Aamodt who was badly injured when she took a ground fall while sport climbing in Turkey about a year ago:

Twelve months have passed since I hit the ground from that 15m free-fall. I broke my pelvis into three pieces and shattered 3 vertebrae and my elbow (compound fracture). I dislocated and fractured both ankles (one was compound), and destroyed a number of bones in my feet and legs.

Aamodt has since returned to climbing at a high level with redpoints up to 5.13.